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Published: June 30th 2008
Here we are then...our voyage to the bottom of the world complete, see I go to the ends of the Earth to write blogs for you people!!
From our last port of call in Rio Gallegos, we headed 12 hours south, th the southern most city in the world, Ushuaia. It's a bit of grief to get to actually, as you have to get an exit stamp on the Argentinian border, go through customs to get into Chile, followed by a short 15 minute ferry ride over the Magellan Strait and then get a Chilean exit stamp, followed by more customs to re-enter Argentina, all very time consuming and a bit dull!
So after alot of travelling, we eventually arrive in Ushuaia and head to the nearest hostel, where bless 'em they have some BBQ leftovers for us to tuck in to!
Its a 9am wake up the following morning, early for us especially after all this travelling, but as i've said before, we are having to hotfoot it and make the most of our time, so we're quick to the point to the point no fakin' cooking MC's like a pound of Bacon. I mean seriously, its
9am and the sun isn't even up yet! We get chatting to a few Colombian girls who are pretty much the only other people staying in the hostel and agree to go Husky Dog Sledding with them. We've just about got enough time to nip down to the bay to look over the Beagle Channel and watch sun come up over the Chilean mountain range. We head off about 15 minutes north to a small restaurant from where you can arrange excursions on huskies or skiddoos (snow mobiles). The 6 of us get some snow shoes and head off for a bit of a wander first, as the huskies are still having their lunch when we turn up. The scenery is spectacular and there is a real alpine feel about the place, we even stop to build a snowman...though one of the girls manages to decapitate him!
After an hour of walking, we head for the sleds. The huskies are beautiful and raring to go, in fact at one point they all start crooning in unison as they all want a run out. With 40 dogs howling its almost deafening!! Chris and I grab 1 sled and the 4
girls take the other, the driver of the sled is having to hold the dogs back as they are so keen and them BAM....we are off, and man these dogs can run!
The run out is only 2kms, and thats pretty good as its bloody cold and going at speed is not helping the wind chill factor. There are a couple of humourous moments though, the first when two of the dogs start scrapping and the second and much, much funnier....the rear right dog stops for a piss, then to cover his tracks starts kicking the piss covered snow behind him....right at Chris who is sat in the front of the sled, it brightened up my day no end! Even the driver said 'in your face!' We all go back to the restaurant, for some much needed hot bevvies and a warm fire, before heading back to Ushuaia.
Back in Ushuaia, we get our passports stamped to say we've been here, check out the rather dull end of the world museum and catch the Netherlands vs Russia euro footy match in one of the lowest Irish pubs in the world and yes, after my extensive scientific research, I
This poor fella didnt have a clue where he was going....
In the words of Yazz and the Plastic Population, 'the only way is up' my friend.can conclude that the beer here does taste very similar to that which we have back in the UK. The two of us also get a bit carried away in one of the chocolate shops...it seems to be a bit of a speciality here in Patagonia.
A 5am wake up sees us back on the bus...AGAIN headed back to Rio Gallegos, via the Magellan Strait and the same long winded customs procedures. My passport is almost full of Argentinian and Chilean bloody stamps...and so help me if one more person feels the need to stamp over my Galapagos Islands stamp I will have a Micheal Douglas in Falling Down moment!
We have a three hour wait in Rio Gallegos, in which we drink our own body wait in black gold (AKA coffee..for those that haven't been reading the blogs....welcome along johnny come lately!) before setting off for El Calafate near the border of Chile. For those without a map...or dont know whats in Chile and whats in Argentina (you know who you are, i've spoken to one of you recently!) Chile is a thin strip of country that stretches half of the Pacific coast of South America, so
The Beagle Channel....
it divides Argentina and Chile the two countries have quite alot of attractions that cross over...hence the zig zagging travelling pattern. We get to the bus station around 1.30am where some brave soul is touting her hostel (a clear sign of another ghost town!) En route to the hostel she tells us she can arrange a trip to the Perito Moreno glacier (our reason for coming here) for 90 pesos leaving at 9am the following morning, well we're no mugs...this tour cant be the only way of getting there tomorrow, so we put her off as we reckon we can get a bus there ourselves a bit cheaper.
Yep, we're mugs. The last bus left at 9am and we missed it...on the plus side, we book a ticet for the following day and it only costs us 60 pesos! It does of course mean we have wasted a day...not to worry, I can pass the time writing you lovely people a blog...wrong. El Calafate has a really slow net speed and so the dont let people use Skype for phone calls or upload piccies, there are no activities to do as pretty much most agencies are shut along with half of the hostels, we
Snow Shoes!
OK, how many of you thought that was my real foot! I cant help having big feet! couldnt even find a pub! Now i've seen some crazy stuff out here (like Brad attempting a jump on a mountain bike and falling flat on his face...technically not crazy, but he still reads these and I just realised its been a while since I ripped the piss out of him!) But no pub?!...what next? Porstmouth winning the FA Cup?!....dont make me laugh. As we are finding out to our own peril, Winter really slams the brakes on a lot of the activities on offer here in Patagonia...hence why everywhere is really quiet. Still we manage to find at least 1 bar that night for a few beers, even if it does turn out to be a bar crossed with a book shop?! Learning whilst drinking? 'Novel' but I like it!
The next morning we jump aboard the boogie bus and head to the National Park Los Glacieres to see the Perito Moreno glacier. Its one of the few glaciers in the world that is moving and unlike the previous ones ive seen it isn't on a mountain, but actually in the sea. We skirt along a huge lake and as we turn the corner we are teated to
Puma tracks....
course it ran when it saw us approaching! out first sighting of the glacier. Even though we are some distance from it, it looks huge. With a height of nearly 60 metres from sea level and a width spanning 5kms, it's not surprising! We head down to the port to jump on a boat and take a closer look. Up close, you can see just how immense it really is, you can also see the blue ice sparkling on the jagged seracs (towers) that sit atop the glacier. After a 45 minute boat ride, where im pretty much trapped outside, as some selfish bastard has set up a video camera tripod in the middle of the gangway and is filming the glacier (bet that'll be one hell of an exciting home movie) I cant wait to get back on the warm bus, which carries us slightly futher into the park. From here you can walk a series of bridges that allow you to look down on the glacier and see all the way across it to the snow capped peaks in the background. Whilst wandering around you an hear cracking and what sounds like explosions as huge chunks of the glacier break off and fall into the lake
Husky Riding
Getting ready for some sledding! below.....very impressive to see. In fact every few years the glacier has a huge rupture where upon the front of it literally explodes under pressure into the lake, which can alter its shape dramatically. Pretty cool really and definitely worth the hideous bus journeys!
Speaking of which, the following morning, its another 5 hours from El Calafate across the border to Puerto Natales in Chile. The weather is terrible. Snow is falling, all around us, children playing, having fun, tis the season for love and understanding....right enough of that old bollocks, there were obviously no children playing anywhere near the bus, for a start it was far too cold and secondly that would have been irresponsible parenting. How the driver could actually see the road though was beyond Chris and I, needless to say we buckled up.
We crawled out the bus around lunch time and its fair to say our first experience of Chile was a tad Cold...bet you thought I was gonna use some clever play on words along the lines of 'chilly'then didnt you...well I couldnt think of any that sounded good, bugger.
Til next time blog fans..dont touch that dial.
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